Collapsible bed rail

ABSTRACT

A COLLAPSIBLE BED RAIL FOR USE WITH CONVENTIONAL MATTRESSES AND SPRINGS WHICH HAS ANCHORING ARMS THAT EXTEND UNDER A MATTRESS, TO BRACE THE RAIL IN POSITION, THAT ARE PIVOTALLY ATTACHED TO THE GUARD PORTION OF THE RAIL WITH A CONNECTION THAT INCLUDES A SLOT AND HEADED STOP WHICH BOTH LIMITS THE DEGREE OF PIVOT AND RETAINS THE PARTS IN ASSEMBLY. THERE IS FURTHER SHOWN A GUARD THAT EXTENDS   ABOVE A MATTRESS WHICH IS SUBDIVIDED INTO HALVES THAT ARE HINGED TO ONE ANOTHER SO THAT BED RAIL CAN BE FOLDED TO ONE-HALF ITS FULL LENGTH.

Nov. 2, 1971 s. G. INJESKI 3,616,469

GOLLAPSIBLE BED RAIL Filed May 7, 1969 INVENTOR STANLEY G.INJESKI QM M/ ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,616,469 COLLAPSIBLE BED RAIL Stanley G. Injeski, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor to Worldsbest Industries, Inc., Sturgis, Mich. Filed May 7, 1969, Ser. No. 822,485 Int. Cl. A47c 21/00, 19/12; A47f /00 US. Cl. 5--331 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Bed rails are commonly employed to prevent children, invalids, light sleepers and the like from falling out of bed. Some rails are tailor made for particular beds and fit in spacial brackets on such beds. Others are portable and of general use for any standard bed. The portable rails avoid the necessity of permanent guards, and each can be used on a plurality of beds to enhance their versatility. To best serve its function, a portable bed rail must be compact, easily mounted, secure when in mounted position, and collapsible into a small space for storage.

Bed rails have been made of tubular members that combine adequate strength with light weight. Examples are shown in Pat. Nos. 1,066,976, 1,915,774, 2,555,228, 2,859,454 and 2,991,487. It is desirable in such tubular constructions to pivot the anchoring arms that fit under the mattress to accomplish collapsing. A mere pivot connection, however, can be annoying if the anchoring arms are unrestrained, and can swing into any position within an orbit of 360 degrees. Limiting types of construction are shown in Pat. Nos. 2,859,454 and 2,991,487. Connections that limit the amount of pivot may become unduly expensive and out of proportion in both expense and complexity to the rest of the bed rail. The present invention is directed to overcoming such a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention represents improvements in a collapsible bed rail construction and it more specifically resides in a guard member that projects above a mattress having downward extending legs which are in telescopic, pivoted connection at their lower ends with anchoring arms that are inserted under a mattress to brace the rail in position, each such telescopic connection including a circumferential extending slot in the outermost member of the connection and a stop member in the other member of the connection that projects into the slot to thereby limit the degree of pivot and to retain the parts in assembly.

The present invention accomplishes the objectives of compactness for storage by providing hinged anchoring arms which fold in a plane normal to the guard members. To further facilitate this objective, the guard member may comprise two halves hinged together about a vertical axis to fold the bed rail into half its full length. This presents advantages over both fixed anchoring arms and bed rails of rigid, unitary guard members of fixed length. It is also superior to vertically collapsing anchoring arms 3,616,469 Patented Nov. 2, 1971 ice which cause side guard collapse when the anchoring arms are even slightly withdrawn from under a mattress.

The present invention is easily mounted, in that the anchoring arms need only be inserted between the mattress and springs. The combined weight of the mattress and occupant are sufiicient to hold the bed rail securely in position. This eliminates the necessity for locking means which are an additional expense and difficult to attach.

The telescopic pivotal connection which restricts the anchoring arms to a pivot within a ninet degree are is of simple construction and permits enhanced vertical stability.

Objects of the invention are to provide an improved collapsible bed rail of greater portability, adequate strength, economy of construction, simplicity of operation, and that is collapsible to within minimal overall dimensions.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages will appear from the following description of the invention, in the description reference is made to the accompanying drawings which show by way of illustration and not of limitation a specific embodiment of the invention. Such embodiment does not represent, in any sense, the full scope of the invention, but rather the invention may be employed in many different embodiments, and reference is made to the claims for a determination of the full scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a view in perspective showing two bed rails of the invention mounted with the position anchoring arms between a box spring and mattress,

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view in elevation of a telescopic, pivotal connection for the anchoring arms,

FIG. 3 is a view partly in section of the telescopic connection taken in the plane 33 as shown in FIG. 4, and

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the telescopic connection taken in the plane 44 as shown in FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Each of the collapsible bed rails in the drawings has a vertical guard member 1 that rises above a mattress and is comprised of two inverted U-shaped frames 2 with horizontal stringers 3 that are of tubular metal construction. The frames 2 readily permit attachment of a plastic network or other suitable screen or fabric to restrain persons in bed. The frames 2 of the guard member 1 are disposed adjacent one another and are joined by a metal hinge 4, so that they may be collapsed against one another to facilitate storage and handling.

The inverted U-shaped frames 2 terminate in downward extending legs 5 that are hollow, tubular members. Three of the legs 5 of a bed rail are in a telescopic connection with an anchoring arm 6 of L-shaped configuration. FIGS. 2-4 show a telescopic connection between a downward extending leg 5 and an anchoring arm 6, and it is seen that the arm 6 is also a thin walled tubular member. The upper end of the arm 6 is of reduced diameter to fit snugly within the hollow lower end of the downward extending leg 5, to thereby form the telescopic connection. To reinforce the connection, and to serve as a firm seat for a pivot limiting stop member 7, a rigid, annular plug 8 is tightly inserted into the upper end of the anchoring arm 6.

The lower end of the downward extending leg 5 of FIGS. 2-4 has a circumferential extending slot 9 that extends through an arc of ninety degrees. The pivot limiting stop 7 is in the form of a screw, and the head 10 of this stop 7 projects into the slot 9.

The pivot of the anchoring arm 6 with respect to its associated leg 5 is thus limited. The slots 9 are positioned to permit a ninety degree turning, but no more, so that the arms 6 can be perpendicular to the plane of the guard member 1 when in operative position for insertion under a mattress, or collapsed in a common plane with the guard member 1. The direction of pivot for the respective arms 6 is indicated by the arrows 11 in FIG. 1, and for the positions of collapse all the arms 6 are within the overall length of the guard 1. The two frames 2 of the guard 1 can also be collapsed against one another to achieve objectives of the invention.

I claim:

1. In a collapsible bed rail having a guard member for projecting above a mattress that includes downwardly extending legs, and further having anchoring arms pivotally attached to the lower end of the legs, the improvement therein of each downward leg having a hollow cylindrical tubular member at its lower end;

each anchoring arm having a hollow cylindrical tubular member at its upper end that is in telescopic connection with the lower end of one of said downward legs, whereby one member is inserted within the other member;

a stiff, reinforcing plug tightly inserted within the inner member of each telescopic connection;

the outer member of each telescopic connection having a circumferential extending slot that exposes the inner member and that is at the elevation of said plug; and

a pivot limiting stop member secured in each inner member and its associated plug which has a head projecting from the inner member into the recess presented by the slot of the outer member to limit relative turning movement of the anchoring arms with respect to the downward legs to an arc of about degrees, in which the limits of movement are between an anchoring arm position in the plane of said guard member and an anchoring arm position normal to said guard member, and to retain the legs and arms in assembly with one another.

2. In a bed rail as in claim 1, wherein the guard member comprises a pair of frames hinged to one another to provide collapse of one frame against the other to reduce the length of the bed rail.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 327,834 10/1885 Spruce 287-92 2,104,072 1/1938 Carr 248l18 2,601,015 6/1952 Gruber 533l 2,691,407 10/1954 Kupski 248-417 2,709,097 5/1955 Leary 287--92 2,859,454 11/1958 Beckwell 5-331 2,931,054 4/1960 Ritter 5-l77 Y PAUL R. GILLIAM, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

